


Seals are Boyfriend Shaped, Actually

by OhNoMyBreadsticks



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Flirting, Enemies to Lovers, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Graduate School, Happy Ending, M/M, Near Death Experiences, Selkies, Snark, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25429183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhNoMyBreadsticks/pseuds/OhNoMyBreadsticks
Summary: Ocean conservation is serious business, and Niles is more than excited about spending his summer volunteering to clean up trash at the beach.What he hasn't counted on is that some of the trash might talk back.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 20
Kudos: 127





	Seals are Boyfriend Shaped, Actually

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to another edition of 'Bready is suddenly gripped with the urge to write a ridiculously specific AU'! This time, the idea of unashamedly honest selkie!Gav wouldn't let go of me until I wrote it out lmao. It was actually really fun to revisit the sort of snappy snarky G9 dynamic I wrote when I first entered the fandom, so I hope ya'll enjoy a bit of a throwback in terms of style :)
> 
> [thislittlekumquat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thislittlekumquat/pseuds/thislittlekumquat) deserves massive thanks for not only being my beta but also sending me tons of seal gifs/videos as inspiration <3 
> 
> Also big shoutout to [Socks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock) for being an amazing cheerleader on this project <3
> 
> Fun fact: the google doc for this fic was titled 'Sulky Selkie Gav'

Niles adjusted his sunglasses and grabbed his bucket and gloves, ready for his first day out on the beach. He was aware that most people in his situation would consider this a punishment rather than an opportunity, but he wasn’t exactly most people. He had signed up for cleanup as a volunteer, and he was renting this little beach house by the shore so that he could do it every day if possible. Lord knew the weather wouldn’t always cooperate, but he could spend those days inside, working on data for his thesis. 

Today though, the weather was almost comically perfect - the sky a perfect blue, the sun beating down on crystal waves without a single cloud to block its rays. Niles had taken all of the appropriate precautions before going outside into the summer heat, applying sunscreen and filling his water bottle before clipping it onto his little backpack. He wass going to be out all day, so he’s also packed a lunch for himself, also stored in the backpack. Satisfied with his preparations, he stepped out onto the beach with a real sense of excitement singing through his veins.

It’s wonderful just to be outside on a day like this, but every time Niles picked up a piece of litter and stuffed it into his bucket he knew he was doing something really useful. Well, not as useful as dismantling the system of aggressive production and consumption that truly pollutes the oceans, but still. He was just a marine biology student, he can’t do it all by himself. What he can do is make this particular stretch of beach a little cleaner, and educate anyone he comes across while he’s at it. 

Which, strangely, wasn’t happening too often. Niles had assumed the beach would be crawling with tourists on a day like today, but then again he’s never been a great judge of people. Looking across the circle of the bay revealed that all of the tourists are over in the more well-lit part of the beach, not the area Niles is in, with its litter and rocks and natural fauna. Well, their loss, he thought a little bitterly. This part of the coast is more interesting anyways, and he can get his job done better if he’s alone.

Working his way along the beach, Niles wouldn’t have even noticed the little hidden cove if not for the amount of litter leading up to it. It was like someone (or a large group of someones) had decided to have a party on this little piece of the beach, and then left everything they brought with them. Niles muttered angrily to himself as he picked up empty chip bags and soda cans, following the trail of trash to a tiny little pool off the main ocean. It was guarded by some rocks that kept it safe from the crashing waves and also the interruption of prying eyes. Perfect for a little party or… Skinny dipping, apparently.

The man sitting on a rock that jutted into the pool was stark naked, leaning back and seemingly sunning himself with his eyes closed. Niles’ first instinct was to backpedal while he still could, and pretend he hadn’t seen anything at all. Especially not a lean, tan body with washboard abs and a very nice co-- 

Halfway through that thought, he spotted still more trash scattered around on the rocks, including a dingy blanket of all things, and his embarrassment turned to annoyance.    
  
“Excuse me  _ sir _ , but you should really pick up after yourself if you’re going to use the beach,” Niles said, putting all the malice of a disgruntled service worker into his pronunciation of ‘sir’. To his credit, the man on the rock didn’t fall into the pool when he startled, but it was a close thing. He blinked up at Niles owlishly and made no attempt to cover himself, so he was clearly a pervert on top of being a litterer. He also didn’t appear to understand English, so Niles reached to pick up the gross wet looking blanket and opened his mouth to deliver another lecture.

That got a reaction out of the man, who suddenly barked out, “Oy! Don’t touch that, I need that!” Niles rolled his eyes and shook the piece of fabric, drops of water falling off of it and tickling at his feet in their practical sandles. 

“Oh really? You need this piece of litter? There’s no cleanup crew at the beach, you’re required by law to pick up after yourself or you risk negatively impacting the ecosystem,” he said primly.

“You sure look like the cleaning crew to me,” the man retorted with a snort, “And that’s not litter, idiot, it’s my selkie skin. I need it to go back into the ocean.” The way he delivered that line with a totally straight face took Niles by surprise. Was this guy suffering from sunstroke? Selkies were made up, and if they did exist they wouldn’t be sunbathing nude surrounded by trash. But he really didn’t want to get in a fight with some random dude on the beach over some trash, so Niles scowled and threw the blanket at the man.

“Cover yourself up or throw it out on your way out of the beach,” he grumbled. The mouthy hobo had the audacity to stick out his tongue at Niles when he caught the blanket, clutching it to himself like it was actually something of worth. He still wasn’t covering up, so Niles decided that was quite enough of this terrible conversation. He wasn’t getting paid to deal with riff-raff on the beach - this was why he’d gone into a field that had as little personal interaction with the public as possible.

“I’d say see you around but I hope I don’t,” Niles said bluntly, turning around to leave with a curt nod in the direction of the man, who simply snorted in reply. A paragon of conversational virtue, truly. Just as Niles thought he was going to get away from this whole fiasco, he heard a bark of, “Careful you don’t trip over the massive stick up your ass!” and what sounded suspiciously like cackling. Head held high, Niles did what he did best and simply ignored the crude comment, wandering off along the beach in search of trash that didn’t have a loud mouth.

* * *

The next few days were nice. Idyllic, even. Niles spent time combing the beach for trash in the day, and in the evening he did data analysis. Which, you know, most people wouldn’t call much of a life, but it suited him just fine. And whenever he was feeling down or frustrated he could just pop outside and have a quick dip in the ocean. It felt good to swim against the waves and come back to the little house with the smell of salt in his hair and on his skin. Made him feel more alive than anything had in a long time. This summer vacation had been a good idea.

But sadly, nothing ever lasted forever. And Niles found himself at the mouth of the trash cove yet again. It was still filthy, and he grumbled under his breath as he started picking up the trash and angrily shoving it into his bucket. He just had to hope that crazy guy from before wasn’t back again. He took a cautious peek around the rocks to check… and breathed out a sigh of relief as he saw an empty little cove, the only inhabitants being more trash and the sound of the waves gently sloshing against the rocks. Annoyingly, that shitty blanket was now draped on the rocks where last time the man had been sunbathing, out of reach unless Niles got wet. Which honestly, he was tempted to do just out of spite. 

Just as he was about to set his bucket down and start clambering across the rocks towards the prize, a sudden splash threw him completely off guard. Niles gasped out a curse as the man emerged from underneath the water, wiping dripping wet hair out of his eyes and glaring at him. “Don’t even think about it!” he barked out. “How many times I gotta tell you not to touch my selkie skin!” 

For a hot second, Niles was so startled that all he could do was stare into those oddly green-brown eyes, mouth opening and closing with no sound coming out. There was a smattering of freckles across the man’s cheeks, and a scar across the bridge of his nose. Where had he gotten something like that?

Shaking out of those useless thoughts, Niles glared and snapped back, “How many times do I have to tell you to stop littering? This cove is filthy and you’re the only one I keep seeing here!” If this was really all one person’s trash then it was a miracle he was as fit as he was - it appeared he subsisted entirely on soda and various snack chips that came in those terrible, brightly colored bags. Still treading water and blessedly hiding his nakedness under the waves, the man simply rolled his eyes and snorted again. Charming.

“Typical human behavior, blaming the first person they see,” he said. “You really don’t have any ability to look beyond your own nose, do you?” 

Niles took offense to that, on several different levels, but he was nonetheless ashamed of himself for taking the obvious bait to start arguing with this lunatic. Setting his bucket down, he crossed his arms and retorted, “First of all, you can’t just say ‘typical human’, what the fuck is that supposed to mean? You’re not exempt from that list.” 

The man in the water had the gall to laugh at him, bobbing up and down and letting his laughter bubble up through the water. “Yeah I am, dumbshit. I’m a selkie. Told you before.” 

Niles gritted his teeth - again with this selkie bullshit. He was getting real tired of that shtick. Pointing an accusatory finger, he asked, “What’s your name?” 

That seemed to take the man by surprise, as he stopped chuckling and looked at Niles suspiciously. “Gavin,” He finally said, “What’s it to you?” Niles had been hoping for a last name so that he could disdainfully say, ‘ _ Well, _ Mister so-and-so, I’m about ready to report you to the beach authorities.’ Which, really, he couldn’t, because there were no beach authorities. At least not any that cared about littering, obviously. 

Frustrated and thrown off balance by Gavin’s oddly straightforward answer, Niles struggled to find something to say. The silence clearly amused Gavin, who laughed and said, “You can tell me your name safely, don’t worry. Selkies don’t steal names, I can’t like, bind you with magic or anything.” The sheer audacity of the man to even talk about something so ridiculous snapped Niles out of his stupor and he rolled his eyes so hard they almost rolled out of their sockets.

“ _ God _ , you really might be the most infuriating person I’ve ever met. And I’ve met some wild faculty members,” Niles snapped. “My name is Niles Stern, which is the polite way to introduce yourself, by the way.” 

Gavin simply did his best impression of a shrug while treading water and replied, “Yeah well, not like I’ve got a last name. Coulda made one up but that wouldn’t be very polite now, would it?”

Maybe Gavin was suffering from heat stroke. Maybe Niles was. Either way, this conversation was actively making him lose brain cells, so it was time to leave. Picking up his bucket, he turned to leave without wasting another word on this idiot. He had trash to clean up and data to analyze, and none of that was going to get done if he stood here all day and argued with Gavin about whether or not thinking magic was real was a symptom of being born without common sense or something he had developed later in life. 

“See ya around Niles! Don’t try to steal my selkie skin again, or I’ll drown you!” Gavin called out after him, tone annoyingly cheerful enough to make Niles grit his teeth so hard they creaked in his jaw. 

* * *

After that second encounter, Niles actively tried to avoid Gavin, even though he swore to himself that he didn’t care enough about the threats to do so. As annoying as it was, the truth of the matter was that he had been avoiding the part of the beach that held the little cove where they had met. Human contact wasn’t something Niles sought out much anyways, and Gavin had been an experience he really didn’t enjoy. That was a perfectly logical and valid reason to avoid him. Definitely. Niles was in the right here, he wasn’t being ‘driven off’ or anything dramatic like that, he was just avoiding conflict. 

Gavin was the farthest thing from his mind, which was why Niles nearly had a heart attack when he was rudely interrupted in the middle of his evening swim by that very person. One minute he was swimming, taking deep measured breaths as his arms and legs moved through the water, and the next he was floundering in surprise as someone tapped at his ankle. 

“Fancy meeting you here!” Gavin greeted him, popping up from under the water and grinning maniacally. Niles managed to catch his breath and start treading water after a few heartstopping moments of confusion, and then he fixed Gavin with his most venomous glare.

“It’s the ocean, Gavin. We’re hardly anywhere in particular, let alone a place where that phrase would be applicable. And we’re not meeting, you ambushed me!” Niles huffed. “Are you stalking me or something?” His words were maybe a bit jumbled, and that thought wasn’t a pleasant one, but now that he’d said it out loud he couldn’t fight the worry that it was true. Maybe Gavin was trying to get back at him for trying to throw away all the trash he had collected? 

Gavin’s snorting laugh was enough to pull Niles out of his thoughts, and his reply of, “Oh my god, you think I care enough about you to stalk you? Nah, I was just in the area and thought I’d see how good of a swimmer you are,” was enough to remind Niles just how annoying yet non-threatening this man was. He was so small, Niles could take him if it came to a fight anyways. He said as much, which had Gavin laughing even harder.

“You think you could fight me? Here in the open water? You couldn’t even catch me if you tried!” Gavin cackled, and something about that smug tone had Niles losing his last shred of coherent thought. Instead of turning around and ignoring this unhinged individual who just couldn’t seem to stay away, he opened his mouth and said, “I bet I could catch you. You don’t know how fast I am.” 

The beaming grin that spread across Gavin’s face at the challenge shouldn’t have been endearing. And yet Niles couldn’t help but feel a tiny spark of fondness blossom in his chest. It was absolutely ridiculous, maybe he really was lacking human contact out here in his solo beach house. Whatever the cause of this strange insanity, it seemed like it was catching, as both of them were turning and lining up to race each other to the shore.

“First one to get both feet on dry sand wins,” Gavin said, raising one arm out of the water and pointing towards the shore. 

“Deal,” Niles agreed, although neither of them had even mentioned any kind of wager. It seemed this was about pride, not some prize to be claimed. Good, since he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what some kind of weirdo like Gavin would ask him for. 

At the shout of ‘Go!’ from Gavin, they both took off, Niles putting his head down and actually swimming for everything he was worth. He didn’t have time to look and see where Gavin was in relation to him, but he could hear him splashing nearby, which meant he at least wasn’t a  _ terrible _ swimmer. Niles’ confidence was high as he reached the shore and hauled himself up to sprint to the dry sand, limbs shaking with adrenaline and exertion, so it came as a nasty shock to find Gavin already waiting with his hands on his hips three feet away on the dry part of the beach.

“You did good, for a human!” he cackled, and Niles couldn’t hold back the curse that slipped out of his mouth in response. There was no sense in accusing the other man of cheating, since Niles knew that was impossible, but he had no intention of being a gracious loser. 

“And you did good for someone who has no fashion sense,” Niles shot back, pointing accusingly at the horrible towel that was tied around Gavin’s waist. “I see trash chic is still in style in some places.” 

Gavin, who seemed impervious to Niles’ dry deprecation, simply laughed and patted at the ratty material on his ass. “I thought I’d protect your modesty today, so I tied my selkie skin around my waist,” he explained. “It’s still not trash, idiot. It’s literally the most important thing I have.” 

Unwilling to even engage with the stupidity of this argument yet again, Niles simply huffed out a sigh and turned to walk back to his house, intending to ignore Gavin now that his moment of weird camaraderie was over.

What Niles didn’t expect was for Gavin to reach out and grab him by the arm, gently stopping him. “Hey now, what do I get as my prize?” he asked, clearly teasing. Niles forced himself to stop thinking about how fucking strong his hand was, and how good it felt against his bare skin, and gave him a withering look in reply. 

“Nothing, if you keep touching me without permission you pervert.”

“You’re the one interpreting a friendly arm grab as something perverted,” Gavin retorted, sticking out his tongue, but he released Niles nonetheless. “Now do I get something?”

It seemed he wasn’t going to give up, and previous experience told Niles that a cutting comment would only further encourage him. Instead, he looked out across the waves to the horizon, watching the sun begin to dip down, and sighed. 

“Fine. You can join me for dinner. I think I have enough burgers for two, as long as your stomach isn’t as big as your mouth,” Niles said, which had Gavin pumping his fist in celebration. It was no great hardship, he had been planning to grill burgers on the beach behind his house anyways, so it wasn’t even like Gavin would be allowed inside. They’d have dinner, Gavin would leave, and then maybe Niles would get some peace and quiet. An unexpected turn of events, sure, but nothing he couldn’t handle.

It turned out that what Niles  _ couldn’t  _ handle was the fact that he actually had fun grilling burgers with Gavin on the beach. Either he was starting to lose it for real or Gavin was mellowing out, but he was astonishingly good company when they weren’t arguing over litter on the beach. Not to say he was the perfect guest, Niles thought, as he watched Gavin try to stuff a whole hamburger bun in his mouth and then spew crumbs everywhere, but… enjoyable company. Could have been far worse. And there weren’t too many things in Niles’ life that he classified that highly, aside from the sea itself. 

* * *

After that weirdly nice evening together, Niles found himself running into Gavin more and more on the beach. Maybe it was because he wasn’t intentionally avoiding the man, or maybe it was because Gavin really was stalking him. Niles held it was probably the latter, but he could put a stop to it if it got too bad. As it was, their encounters were mostly just Gavin yelling greetings at him from the ocean, or swimming up to the beach to kick empty soda cans at him under the guise of ‘helping’ with the litter collection. Strangely, Niles never saw him approach from any direction other than ‘out of the ocean’ which was probably why he had beat him in that swimming race. The man’s calves must be strong enough to swim half the ocean.

Not that Niles ever looked at Gavin’s physique. No, absolutely not. And thankfully for both of them, Gavin had taken to wearing his ratty towel around his hips any time he was out of the water. It was just common decency, after all, so Niles didn’t give him too much credit for doing it. They both respectfully kept their eyes on the other person’s face, and if Niles felt Gavin’s eyes on his body when he wasn’t looking, well… He didn’t say anything. It made him feel less guilty for checking out the other man on occasion.

They fell into what was almost a ‘routine’ of sorts, but that would belay a friendly relationship, and they most certainly didn’t know each other well enough for anything like that. Niles simply knew that once a week or so, Gavin would just show up at his place, and they would sit out on the beach and grill something, or have drinks. It was relaxing, somehow, and definitely more pleasant conversation than he managed to have with any of the other people he encountered during the rest of his days. Not that the bar was very high, given that most of the people he talked to were shitty entitled tourists. Pretty soon there would be other grad students arriving for a short research project, and Niles was actually looking forward to that. Intelligent people to talk to, thank god.

For now, though, it was nice to sit and watch the ocean with a beer in his hand and tear apart Gavin’s stupid ass stories. He seemed to have a never ending supply of ridiculous tales involving himself and all manner of sea life, and Niles found it an amusing exercise to pick holes in them with his knowledge of marine biology. Luckily Gavin was a good sport, just laughing along and shaking his head like he actually believed his own bullshit. It was almost convincing, and if Niles were dumber or less educated he might have gotten sucked into the wild lies about selkies and dolphins and swimming on the ocean floor. Luckily, he wasn’t that dumb.

Niles  _ did _ like to tease Gavin about his insistence on not being a human, because that was the thing that would get the most reaction out of him. It always made him snort or roll his eyes, or launch into some impassioned tirade about how blind Niles was to how the world actually worked, or some shit. Incredibly amusing and, in Niles’ opinion, the only proper response to someone who was so delusional as to believe themselves to be a magical creature.

A small, annoying voice in the back of his head liked to remind him that perhaps he was being cruel to Gavin for ridiculing what seemed to be his honest beliefs. But that voice was easily silenced.

“Okay, say I believe you,” Niles said one evening, after a beer and a half (he didn’t drink often, or drink anything much stronger than beer) had loosened up his tongue, “Say I decide to believe you’re a hundred percent real selkie. What then? Will you show me your seal form or whatever? Gonna animorph in front of me?” He had expected Gavin to get annoyed with him or laugh it off and bluster out some excuse or another. Because obviously he wasn’t going to transform into a seal. That just wasn’t possible. 

Instead, to Niles’ absolute shock and surprise, Gavin got flustered. He looked away, but not quickly enough to avoid Niles seeing the way his cheeks flushed just a tiny bit. “I can’t. You’d laugh at me,” he grumbled, refusing to make eye contact. It took Niles a few moments to gather his thoughts enough to even be able to respond, and he couldn’t hold in the almost hysterical giggle at how silly Gavin looked right now. Apparently this wasn’t the right thing to do, as Gavin went rigid and stood up, clearing his throat.    
  


“I should get going,” he said, and Niles, damn it all, felt bad. He never felt bad, but something about the way the usually unflappable Gavin got flustered was making him feel like the bad guy. Which sucked.    
  
“Wait. Don’t, I’m sorry. I won’t laugh, promise,” he said, and even managed a pretty good straight face as he spoke. “Why would I laugh at you, anyways? If you turned into a seal I’d have to eat my own hat because then magic is real. I’d be too busy to laugh,” Niles offered, although the whole concept was ridiculous.

Gavin crossed his arms and finally looked over at Niles, his cheeks still slightly ruddy. “Well first of all, magic  _ is _ real, so jot that down,” he retorted, and Niles felt slightly less bad upon hearing that terrible meme. “Anyways, seals look dumb. We’re not exactly the sexiest of animals. Round. Lots of blubber. You don’t wanna see that,” Gavin continued, waving a hand dismissively. “Anyways! Thanks for dinner, I’ll see you around, Niles.”

And with that he was gone before Niles could stop him, sprinting away across the beach and waving as he went. It was only once he was completely out of sight that Niles realized he had said ‘We’re not exactly the sexiest of animals.’ What was  _ that _ supposed to mean? Why would Gavin be worried about looking sexy in front of him?? A lesser man might have had a bit of a gay panic right then and there about a comment like that, but not Niles. He packed away the grill and the dinner dishes, did some more data analysis, and then had his gay panic in the shower before bed. Much more sensible.

* * *

Unfortunately (fortunately?) Niles didn’t see Gavin again before the research team arrived, and after that he was too busy to seek him out again. There was no time to have cookouts on the beach when there were expeditions to supervise, and other PhDs to get into polite arguments with over obscure marine biology research. It was invigorating, really, to be in the company of people who understood his passion for this sort of stuff. Even if they were infuriating in their own way. Niles definitely didn’t find himself missing Gavin’s easy laughter and mindless jokes. Definitely not.

Instead, he busied himself with steering out on the research vessel and collecting samples, taking observation notes, and guiding the few undergrads that had tagged along as a summer credit opportunity. It was fulfilling work, and it left him tired enough in the evenings that he would just fall right asleep after a quick, simple meal. The group would only be there for a few weeks, so they had to make the most out of their time, boating out to sea every day, sometimes a few times in one day if they needed to return to shore briefly. The weather had been cooperating, bright and sunny with good winds, and Niles had to admit that he allowed himself to get lulled into a false sense of security. The ocean, as much as they sought to understand it, truly was unforgiving and capricious at times.

Like today, where the research vessel found itself so far out to sea that they couldn’t see the shore, ambushed by a sudden storm that had swept up out of seemingly thin air. Niles clung to the railing as the ship pitched and rolled on the waves, his clothes drenched and his hair plastered against his face. He could barely see, with the way the wind was whipping seawater into his eyes, but he knew they weren’t any closer to the shore than when they had started - if anything there was a danger they were being pushed further out to sea. The rest of the researchers were yelling, trying to tie down the equipment, bundling the undergrads down into the cramped below-deck area, and generally panicking. 

Oddly, despite it all, Niles wasn’t scared. His heart was pounding away like a jackhammer in his chest, but he couldn’t taste the bitter tang of fear on his tongue at all. There was an odd sense of calm, like… if this was how it was going to end, then that was just it. He couldn’t fight the sea, knew his white-knuckled grip on the railing wouldn’t be enough if it really came down to it. 

Calm or no calm, Niles still screamed when the wave dragged him overboard, his body struggling against the water dragging him deep under. The cold forced the air out of his lungs and he gasped, seawater rushing in to replace it. It was quiet, down here, the roar of the ocean muted, the calls of his companions too far away to even register. Within minutes (was it minutes, was it seconds, was it years?) he felt himself start to lose this brief struggle, arms and legs still flailing but pushing him no closer to the surface. Before everything went truly dark, Niles could have sworn he felt something pushing against his chest, a steady presence pushing and tugging at him just as strongly and surely as the ocean itself.

* * *

Niles came back to himself and gagged as sea water poured out of his mouth in heaving retches, along with whatever had been in his stomach from the afternoon’s meal. The sky above was still grey and stormy, but it felt like he was being blinded, his eyes scrunched closed against the sting of the now unfamiliar sun. The first gasp of air as he finally emptied all the water out of his throat felt like heaven, oxygen rushing back into his system and revitalizing his tired limbs. Exhausted and confused, he flopped onto his back, finally gathering the strength to crack open one eye partway.

Niles was on the beach, looking out onto the slightly choppy ocean. Not dead, lying at the bottom of it. Well, floating in it somewhere. He was a scientist, he wasn’t stupid enough to think that bodies sank to the bottom of the ocean like in the movies. That was the least of his concerns at this point though, seeing as he had somehow magically teleported back to the beach after being swept off the research vessel. That  _ had _ happened, right? There was a fear in his mind that he had somehow dreamed that, or that this right now was a dream instead, some last ditch effort of his brain to go out thinking of something nice.

A rustling sound nearby drew his attention, and Niles turned his head to see a rather large blob sitting several feet away and rolling in the sand. Scratch that, it wasn’t a blob, he realized as he opened his other eye and squinted to force himself to focus, it was a seal. A big dark grey seal gazing at him with those baleful eyes seals had. The ones that looked like they were about five seconds from bursting into tears. Anthropomorphization had never been Niles’ favorite, but he supposed almost dying gave him a pass just this once.

Odd, but the seal looked almost familiar. There was something about the shape of those eyes, the way it had a peculiar scar running down the side of its face, the snorting as it turned and began to flop its way back towards the water… Oh goddammit. Niles was so mad. He didn’t even have a hat to eat at this point, but he supposed that was just how this day was going to go.

“Gavin?” he said, gambling on the fact that if it was, in fact, just a regular seal, then at least it wouldn’t be able to laugh at him. His voice sounded raw and garbled from all the salt he had just swallowed, but he was loud enough to be heard, apparently, as the seal froze in place.

“Gavin I know it’s you. Come on, you can gloat now,” Niles said, tone softening as he added, “You just saved my life, after all. I think I owe you one.”

There was an agonizing moment where the seal turned itself back to face Niles and he was sure it was just going to bolt back to the ocean, leaving him all alone and shivering on the beach. Then, quicker than he could blink, the seal was gone and Gavin was sitting in front of him, nervously clutching that dirty blanket to his lap. He still looked a little bit like he was going to burst into tears as a human, which surprised Niles quite a bit. He hadn’t pegged Gavin as the type to get emotional. 

Well. He also hadn’t pegged Gavin as the type to  _ actually _ be able to turn into a magical seal. So there were a lot of things going on here.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Gavin finally muttered, “But I couldn’t just let you drown. You, uh, should be fine as long as you don’t catch cold.” 

Niles couldn’t help it. He blurted out, “You’re cute as a seal.” Oh. That sort of made him sound like he was into seals, which was a weird place to be. So he tried to solve the problem by continuing to blather on, “I mean, not like, the same way you’re cute as a person. Which you also are. Cute, I mean.” Maybe he could blame all of this on his brain being oxygen deprived while he had almost drowned, because he definitely hadn’t planned on admitting to just how attractive he found Gavin. 

Gavin, meanwhile, seemed totally floored by Niles’ stupid confessions, but luckily in a ‘blushing furiously’ way and not a ‘time to ditch this idiot loser’ sort of way. “Wait really?” he asked, like he couldn’t believe something so obvious. “You weren’t like…” He waved his hand, and Niles could very much fill in the blank of ‘disappointed’ or ‘weirded out’ that was left. 

Niles just shook his head, honestly as surprised as Gavin was. But he really didn’t feel anything but shock and surprise at seeing Gavin as a seal. No negative emotions, aside from maybe a little grinding of teeth at being proven wrong, but that had nothing to do with this situation and more with Niles’ perfectionism.

“Nah,” Niles said. “Like I said, I owe you a hat eating, but otherwise I’m pretty fucking pleased with this development.”

Before he could say anything else, Niles suddenly found himself with a lapful of Gavin, salty lips pressing against his own. The kiss was messy, and a little awkward, but he couldn’t help the pleased gasp that escaped as they parted, nor could he help the way his arms instinctively wrapped around Gavin’s waist to keep him close. 

“You’re so fucking hot for someone who says shit like ‘hat eating’. Annoying as hell,” Gavin muttered, diving in for another kiss, and Niles knew they both had it bad. 

* * *

The rest of the summer passed in a blur, the same but but very much different as evenings spent eating dinner on the beach ended in eager touches, and Gavin’s selkie skin took up permanent residence hanging in Niles’ home right next to the bath towels. Niles never stopped teasing him about it being a dirty rag, but he pressed gentle kisses against Gavin’s nose whenever he was a seal, laughing as his whiskers tickled against Niles’ skin. So maybe magic was real. Maybe it didn’t matter that he’d been wrong just this once, if  _ this _ was the reward he got in return.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Any kudos or comments at any time are loved and cherished <3
> 
> Also, cause I haven't re-upped my subscription lately, I hope ya'll know I'm still a key member of the 'ready to throw hands with Dabid Cabbage on sight' club!!
> 
> I'm also available on [tumblr](https://ohnomybreadsticks.tumblr.com/) if you ever feel like chatting or reading some of my lil drabbles, I’d love to see you there C:


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